BYU ScholarsArchive

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  The mRNA/Protein relationship is fluid and changes across tissue and diseased states

  Jose Humberto Giraldez Chavez and Sam Payne

  • Cancer is a dysregulated cell
  • Molecular typing via DNA/RNA/protein
  • Is RNA a proxy for cell?

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  Quantifying the Effects of Potential Small Molecule CHIKV Therapeutics in Human Macrophage Cells

  Madison Gray, Gene Ahlborn, and Brett E. Pickett

  Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne pathogen that causes ~1.1 million human infections annually. Human infections can develop arthralgia and myalgia, which results in debilitating pain for weeks, months, and even years after acute infection. No therapeutic treatments or vaccines currently exist for many alphaviruses, including CHIKV. Targeting the phagocytosis of CHIKV by macrophages after mosquito transmission plays an important role in early productive viral infection in humans, and could reduce viral replication and/or symptoms. For more than a year, our team has used computational analyses to predict pharmaceutical treatments for debilitating viral infections. Specifically, our research navigates the complexities of identifying safe therapeutic treatments for people infected with CHIKV.

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  The Metabolic Effects of Exercise and a Pre-exercise Snack during a 30-hour Fast

  Katelynn Hales, Hil'ilei Chan, Landon S. Deru, Jake Moss, and Bruce W. Bailey Ph.D.

  As incidence rates of chronic illnesses continue to increase, many pharmacological and lifestyle interventions have been undertaken to pinpoint effective treatment and prevention tools to combat them. One such intervention of recent interest includes the use of fasting. Ketones, a product of fat breakdown, are thought to be a key player in some of the health benefits achieved through fasting. Despite potential benefits, adhering to a fasting regimen can be difficult. While it is generally well-tolerated, some experience negative side effects,² indicating potential issues with long-term adherence. Heilbronn et al. suggest that a small meal on fasting days may be a more sustainable option.³ However, little research has been conducted examining the effect of consuming small amounts of food during a fast. Intake of food typically causes body cells to switch back to primarily utilizing glucose for energy rather than ketones,⁴ but there is some evidence that exercise may allow a similar metabolic state to be maintained even with the ingestion of some food.⁵ The main purpose of this study was to evaluate how the presence of a snack and/or exercise during a 30 hr fast impacted ketone levels.

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  New treatment for multiple sclerosis could halt disease progression without weakening immune system

  Carter Helquist and Dario Mizrachi

  • Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating neurological and autoimmune disease in which immune cells cause demyelination of axons in nervous tissue.
  • Current treatments for the disease are principally aimed at weakening the immune system to therefore weaken the autoimmune attack on the brain. This leaves patients prone to other sicknesses.
  • We seek a treatment that prevents the immune cells from entering the central nervous system (CNS) thereby protecting its cells.
  • We can prevent immune cells from entering the CNS by strengthening the blood brain barrier through targeting claudin 5 proteins in the tight junctions.
  • This new treatment could mean increased health and peace of mind for MS patients undergoing treatment.

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  Penstemon sepalulus: A Local Wildflower with a Variety of Pollinators

  Jacob Henrie, Megan DeTemple, Spencer Livermore, Hannah Kool, Paul Frandsen PhD, Mikel Stevens PhD, and Clinton Whipple

  The Utah native wildflower Penstemon sepalulus has characteristics that show it has potential to be visited by bees and hummingbirds— but what pollinates it and why?

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  Walking Boot Design Influences Offloading

  Andrew R. Hillier, Seth C. Huber, Dylan J. Perry, Amy Mitchell Hayward, Jordan K. Grover, and Dustin A. Bruening

  • Nearly 14% of individuals in the U.S. suffer from diabetes¹
  • 15-25% of these individuals will suffer from a diabetic related ulcer in their lifetime¹
  • More than 85% of foot ulcers are diabetes related¹
  • As ulcers worse, infection, gangrene, and amputation become more likely

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  Selection of high-affinity scFvs against tumor antigen HPRT for use in cancer immunotherapies

  Abigail Johnson, Christopher Hanie, Kiara Whitley, Stella Meier, Hunter Lindsay, MIchelle Townsend, K. L. O'Neill, and Scott Weber

  Hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) is a DNA salvage pathway repair enzyme found in the cytoplasm. Recent studies show that HPRT is upregulated and surface expressed in certain cancers, making HPRT a potential cancer biomarker. Our goal is to identify high affinity antibodies against HPRT for use in cancer immunotherapies. We isolated HPRT antibodies from a yeast display system and characterized them to ensure they are unique, bind with high affinity, and are specific to cancer cells. They will then be cloned into immunotherapy constructs and assessed for cytotoxicity. Our research to identify high affinity antibodies against HPRT could lead to development of effective immunotherapeutic treatments for cancer.

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  Preparing Indian Ricegrass Seed for Restoration using Seed Coating Technology

  Amber Johnson, Samuel Knuth, Kayden Allen, Maureen Cartwright, Alex Larson, Christopher MIller, Bradley Geary, April Hulet, and Matthew Madsen

  • Indian ricegrass (Achnatherumhymenoides (Roem. & Schult.) Barkworth) is a highly palatable forage for livestock and wildlife, making it a valuable conservation species (Ogle et al. 2013).
  • Seed dormancy of this species often results in poor or failed plantings (Jones 1990).Reducing seed dormancy of Indian ricegrass before planting may improve seeding success.
  • As this species exhibits both physical and physiological dormancy, several treatment strategies are necessary (Jones 1990).

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  EEG as Successful Diagnostic Tool for Immune Effector Cell Associated Neurotoxicity Syndrome

  Daniel Jones, Christine Eckhardt, Haoqi Sun, Ryan Tesh, and Brandon Westover

  CAR T cell therapy was first proven effective in 2013¹ for the treatment of certain cancer s . However, its widespread adoption is still hindered by side effects like immune effector cell associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). Current research aims to better predict, diagnose, and treat ICANS so that CAR T cell therapy can be more widely applied. Although prior studies have attempted to identify an objective biomarker of ICANS² , current practice relies on clinical assessment to diagnose ICANS. We hypothesize that qualitative features of the EEG may be utilized to develop a physiological grading system of the severity of ICANS.

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  Whole-body vibration alleviates symptoms of morphine withdrawal

  Gavin C. Jones, Christina A. Small, Dallin Z. Otteson, and Scott C. Steffensen

  Whole body vibration at 80 Hz has been shown to blunt neuropathological markers and behavioral symptoms of alcohol dependence Here, we evaluate its ability to ameliorate symptoms of morphine use and withdrawal.

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  Overcoming Detrimental Potato Fungi in potato fields with the Secondary Metabolites of Naturally Occurring Steptomyces

  Hansan Jones, Jacob Anderson, Erik Kemp, Brad Geary, Matthew Madsen, and Ryan Stewart

  • Fungal disease Silver scurf can cause 13% water loss and give poor aesthetic appeal, both of which reduce farmers profits (1,2).
  • Pythium leak can result in up to 50% total loss of potatoes in storage (3)
  • Streptomyces is the right candidate to mitigate or eliminate these losses because of its ability to survive in soil (4) and its history as a proven biocontrol for other plant pathogens (5).

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  Overcoming Detrimental Potato Fungi with the Secondary Metabolites of Naturally Occurring Streptomyces in a Greenhouse

  Hansan Jones, Jacob Anderson, Erik Kemp, Brad Geary, Matthew Madsen, and Ryan Stewart

  • Fungal disease Silver scurf can cause 13% water loss and give poor aesthetic appeal, both of which reduce farmers profits (1,2).
  • Pythium leak can result in up to 50% total loss of potatoes in storage (3).
  • Streptomyces is the right candidate to mitigate or eliminate these losses because of its ability to survive in soil (4) and its history as a proven biocontrol for other plant pathogens (5).

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  Severing family ties: The role of clonal Aspen root connections on tree growth and function

  Nathan Jones, Anson Clark Call, and Samuel St. Clair

  Clonal root integration in Aspen trees has been shown to promote resource sharing among interconnected individuals; however, whether the influence of integration on the physiology of individual ramets (Aspen offspring) changes throughout their developmental life stages is poorly understood.

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  Rising Recess Temperatures: Quantifying the Cooling Effect of School Parks

  Nicholas Kendall and Xuhui Lee

  Many schools in the US are currently placed in urban heat islands. Children attending these schools are thought to be at greater risk to heat stress related health concerns. We used mobile heat sensors to see if there was a quantifiable difference between the playgrounds and parks within and between two schools with differing park sizes.

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  Red Touches Black, Friend of Jack: Using Citizen Science to Analyze Range and Mimetic Variation

  Dallin Kohler and Alison Whiting

  The Arizona mountain kingsnake, Lampropeltis pyromelana , is an understudied species of tricolor kingsnake found in high elevation areas in the western US. Due to its rarity, there is little data on its range or natural history. These harmless snakes are highly variable in coloration (see Fig. 1) and are generally considered Batesian mimics of the highly venomous Sonoran coral snake, Micruroides euryxanthus . But paradoxically, the distributions of the two species barely overlap. Experimental findings indicate that where M. euryxanthus is absent, L. pyromelana would face evolutionary pressure to evolve away from its now disadvantageous mimetic coloration. We utilized citizen science observations in addition to traditional data sources to paint a clearer picture of the range and color variation of these beautiful serpents.

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  Air Pollution in the JFSB Parking Garage

  Kara Law, Nathan Winward, Lucas Pettit, and Emma Montague

  The purpose of this study was to characterize PM2.5 concentration in the JFSB parking garage compared to outdoor air on the JFSB’s balcony.

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  Species Invasion VS. Abundance in the Northern and Southern Regions of Lake Powell

  Amanda LeBarge and Mark Belk

  Lake Powell is a dynamic system, evidenced by its yearly fluctuations in water level. In the last 20 years, this reservoir has experienced invasions from two different invasive species: the gizzard shard, and quagga mussel. Due to the unique nature of Lake Powell, our research seeks to understand if there were catastrophic effects of these invasions on fish biomass and abundance patterns, and do these impacts vary based on region? We hypothesize that both species will have a major impact in all regions on the native species in Lake Powell; however, the southern region will be more catastrophic.

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  P39 Effects on Accumbal DA in Young vs. Old Mice

  Serin Lee, Jared Mcfarlane, Hannah Brundage, and Jordan Yorgason

  Dopamine (DA) release decreases in the nucleus accumbens (NAc)with age, which has been linked to neurodegenerative conditions. ZMP acts as an endogenous activator of AMPK which is correlated to increased DA signalling. P39, exogenous ZMP, also activates the AMPK pathway necessary for DA release. The objective of this study was to examine if the presence of P39 restored these depleted levels of DA in aged mice.

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  Tumor cells can erase the effects of duplicated and deleted chromosomes

  Caleb Lindgren, Chelsie Minor, and Samuel Payne

  In most cancers, tumor cells frequently delete some chromosomes and duplicate others. This is called copy number variation (CNV). Normally, we expect deletions to cause decreases in protein production, and duplications to cause increases. To see if this is what happens in cancer, we identified common CNVs and studied their effects on protein production and patient survival.

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  A Chromosome-Scale Assembly of the Djulis (Chenopodium formosanum) Genome, an Emerging Orphan Crop from Taiwan

  Peter J. Maughan, Eric N. Jellen, John Sproul, Karol Krak, Tzu-Yun Huang, Tzu Che Lin, Beatriz Navarro Dominguez, Yung-Fen Huang, Kate Jaggi, and David E. Jarvis

  Djulis (Chenopodium formosanum Koidz.) is a semi-domesticated Taiwanese native crop. It is a BCD-genome hexaploid (2n = 6x = 54) relative of the Andean-native allotetraploid (AABB) quinoa (C. quinoa). Djulis has been grown in a relatively small area by aboriginal Taiwanese, who use it primarily as a fermentation starter to produce ritual alcoholic beverages. Djulis’ seed protein, like that of quinoa, is complete in terms of its human dietary essential amino acid profile; the seed also offers a wide variety of nutritionally important vitamins and minerals. These nutritional attributes have attracted international attention as a novel, healthy grain option. We used PacBio Hifi long-read sequencing and a final stage of Hi-C–based proximity-guided scaffolding to produce a chromosome scale, reference quality assembly. The final assembly of the 1.67 Gbp genome consists of 1872 contigs, with 95.6% of the assembled sequence contained in 27 large scaffolds that correspond to the three groups of nine haploid chromosomes from each of the subgenomes (BCD). BUSCO results indicate that 98.5% of the conserved orthologous genes for Viridiplantae are complete within the assembled genome, with > 92% being duplicated as expected for a polyploid. Repetitive element analysis classified 64.3% of the assembly as repetitive, with the most common repeat identified as belonging to the Gypsy LTR retrotransposon class, which had significantly expanded in the B subgenome. A MAKER annotation, using IsoSeq data from multiple tissues sources and secondary evidence from related species, yielded 76,510 putative gene models. Comparisons to other Amaranthaceae species, including sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) and quinoa, showed strong patterns of synteny which allowed for the identification of homeologous chromosomes, while previously characterized subgenome-specific repeats were used to assign the homeologous chromosomes to subgenomes. These results represent the first full assemblies of the C and D genomes of the genus Chenopodium.

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  Ancestral State Reconstruction of Oviposition Techniques in New World Stick Insects

  Ellie McGregor, Jackson Linde, and Michael F. Whiting

  Phasmids, commonly known as stick bugs, are unique and interesting creatures, both phenotypically and genotypically. Their cryptic abilities are what draws most people to them, but their oviposition techniques, or how they disperse eggs, has become a new source of interest. While most phasmids are known to flick or drop their eggs from the canopy, there are several other techniques including inserting the eggs into the soil or gluing them to a substrate. New world phasmids have not been thoroughly studied, especially in understanding which technique was ancestral. The purpose of this paper was to construct a phylogenetic tree to determine the ancestral state of these genera and determine if these techniques could serve as traits to delineate subgroups.

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  Morphological Changes of the Asian shore crab Across Latitudes

  Ainslee McMullin and Blaine D. Griffen

  The Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus , is an invasive species that has rapidly spread across the Eastern United States coastline. First observed in North America in 1988, its range currently extends from Maine to North Carolina. H. sanguineus has adapted very well to this region and has displaced several native species as the dominant crab in rocky intertidal habitats. Although the Asian shore crab’s biology and interactions with native species has been well studied, larger scale impacts (economic, potential further spread, community ecology, etc.) are under researched. We collected specimen samples of H. sanguineus throughout its entire East coast range, analyzed morphological differences across latitudes to demonstrate trends, and identified contributing factors to highlight areas in need of further research.

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  Genes Critical For Flagellar Motility in Agrobacterium fabrum

  Audrey Memmott and Joel Griffitts

  The flagellum contains 24 structural proteins that are vital for bacterial motility and virulence (Liu). Additionally, these structural proteins must be assembled in the correct order and orientation for a bacterium to be motile via its flagellum (Armitage). Our current knowledge regarding the flagellum is limited, however, because the majority of it comes from studies focused on Escherichia coli. To increase existing knowledge regarding the flagellum and the genes vital for its functionality, we attempted to define all the genes vital for flagellar motility in A. fabrum by analyzing motility when specific genes are disrupted.

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  Staying Hydrated: A Comparative Analysis of Humectants in Human Skin

  Ayden Olsen, Rachel Prince, Craig Reeves, Cassie Peterson, and Jason Adams

  Humectants are an important class of compounds that attract and retain water within a cell. When mixed with water to create wetting solutions, humectants can prevent desiccation of cadaveric specimens. Recognizing a relative scarcity of comparative studies analyzing the effects of various wetting solutions on post preservation cadaveric maintenance, we utilized wet-dry analysis in order to compare the effects of four common humectants on water retention in human skin tissue. We created a concentration gradient for each humectant to identify the optimal concentrations of each compound for water retention, after which we compared water retention in tissue at the optimal concentrations of each humectant under standardized conditions. Through this simple assay, we show that tissue submerged in glycerol solution retained the most moisture.

  Through further experimentation, we plan to carry out similar studies using additional human tissues in order to create a tissue library, which will provide an evidence-based standard for wetting and rehydrating solutions used in anatomy labs.

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  Rangeland Legacies of Utah

  Ethan Ostraff, Amber Johnson, Samuel Knuth, and Rebecca Black

  In the heart of Utah lies a rich history of rangeland sciences and land use. Ephraim, Utah and the surrounding mountains and valleys have long been a valuable source of shelter and food for the peoples that have inhabited the region. Bands of Paiute and Ute Native Americans called this valley home until the 1850’s when Scandinavian pioneers began settling it. European settlers brought farming techniques that transformed the landscape.